Enlarging your remote workforce can have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Carlsbad organization to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over challenging IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Carlsbad, California businesses to with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Call Desk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly complex if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from different manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing online help for both outdated as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to create a secure connection for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources located at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a telecommuter to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
  • Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent offers expert remote consulting for configuring home routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wireless networks, often supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by providing services like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup assistance.
  • Internet connectivity methods affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications might demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for picking service providers, picking sensible service bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the business PBX environment to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help organizations tune their current Cisco IP voice environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to CUCM consultants.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and help your business to tune your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your at-home workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium Integration Consultants for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Configuration Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-driven access to content, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that permits remote workforce to view and update consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange Integration Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange Server.

Onedrive Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them securely through a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to jointly author documents. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For details about Progent's support services for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable remote support for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot integrated network architectures that combine internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure Integration Services for TeleworkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of cloud services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure connections to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TeleworkersMicrosoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent offers quick and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to get you through tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for At-Home WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Integration Services for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud is a leading set of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's management tools to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, enterprise-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Support Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote IT support experts along with world-class ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, modern Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or revise the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and append screen captures or relevant files. Support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your current Support Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model utilizing the leading PSA platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home employees commonly use their personal devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for careful deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of security policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of data security solutions consultants can help you to design, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall support services, go to firewall integration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management Services for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices utilized by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by security experts with advanced credentials such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your telecommuters.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for Work-from-Home EnpointsHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To view or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage system problems resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, human error, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for telecommuters must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from consultants familiar with a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate circumstances that require a temporary changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for protecting corporate data by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for accessing information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For information about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, see Intune remote endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter solution for your Carlsbad, California business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.